Breaking the Mold
by ficdirectory
Summary: The BAU has the unsub in custody who fits their profile, but he isn't talking. They send in JJ and Reid to stage a scene in an attempt to bring him out. **Nominated: Best Casefic in the 2010 Criminal Minds Fanfiction Awards at LiveJournal**


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The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves and do not twist them to fit our own image. - Thomas Merton

The unsub - who wasn't really an unsub anymore - sat in an interrogation room, arms crossed. He looked disconcertingly young, and disarmingly normal. He was sixteen, and according the profile, had targeted kids at his school, in his neighborhood and even his own parents as victims, and then suffocated them. He had a dark childhood. A darker adolescence.

So far, though, he had given them nothing. Just sat there with his arms crossed.

"Lots of kids have had a history, early on of cruelty to animals..." Prentiss offered.

"Morgan, get Garcia on the line, and tell her to run his name and cross-check it with any mention of animal abuse. A pet he had growing up, that died of undetermined cause. Maybe a teacher saw something, or a neighborhood parent."

"Garcia," Derek said, well-aware that she was listening.

"Yes, my chocolate soufflé? Give me somethin' good and watch me make you rise," she promised.

"Tempting, Dulce de Leche, but I need your computer talents right now. Run a search on our unsub and cross-check it with any reference to animal cruelty."

"Results in five...four...three...oh..." Garcia trailed off. "I've got one bunny seen by a vet in the area. Cause of death was accidental strangulation with yarn. Our unsub would have been...five or six years old... There are more. Do you need them? If you don't I'm closing this screen. I can't think about dead bunnies and stay my chipper self."

"No problem. Thanks, Garcia." 

* * *

JJ played the part as well as she could when Hotch sent her in. Interrogation situations weren't usually her thing, but this unsub was not going to crack. If they couldn't get a confession out of this guy, he was going to walk out of here, and the community - the kid's school - everywhere would be in danger.

"Reid is below you," Hotch had advised. "Our unsub is insecure. He's been abused himself. He strangles to feel powerful. He feels academically inferior. He'll feed on you fighting back against someone who's trying to make you feel smaller."

"What do I have to do?" Reid asked. "I mean, am I the bullied or the smart kid - I've been both, by the way - so I could do both convincingly..."

"You," Hotch said, "Have already done a convincing job at pissing off our unsub by pointing out all the glaring inconsistencies in his story. Stay on that, no matter what JJ does."

Reid sent JJ a look. "What's JJ gonna do?"

But JJ just grabbed Reid by the arm and shoved him in ahead of her. 

* * *

"Is this him?" JJ asked, crossing her arms. "Is this the little bastard who's trying to confuse you and tell you you're story's full of holes?" she asked, noticing how the kid sat forward, his eyes lighting up.

"Yeah. That's the one who tried to tell me all the stuff wrong with me. Said he was some _doctor_."

"He's not a doctor. This?" JJ said, her tone clearly disgusted, "is a socially awkward kid with a crazy mom and autistic tendencies. That's not genius, by the way, Reid. That's a curse," JJ spat.

Reid bit his lip, keeping a quizzical expression to hide the hurt he felt.

"What did you say to him?" JJ demanded, right in Reid's face. She turned to the kid. "Did he tell you that all those people couldn't have died like you said because of some pattern or obscure bruising?"

"Petechiae of the face is actually not obscure at all," Reid cut in. "On the contrary, it's extremely common in cases where victims have been asphyxiated. As I was telling him, it doesn't match with his story that-"

"Shut up," JJ cut him off, shoving Reid back hard against a wall.

"I told you I didn't do it!" the kid exploded, jumping out of his chair. 

* * *

"JJ, you've got to validate what he's saying," Hotch encouraged. "Tell him you understand. As far as he knows you don't even work here. You could be a victim like he sees himself."

"Reid, keep talking," Rossi advised. "Everything you can think of that'll counter what he's telling you." 

* * *

Reid did his best to stay focused on the job at hand, and not look at JJ directly. Now was not the time for hormones. Now was the time for facts.

"According to the Medical Examiner, all the victims in this case, appear to have died from compressive asphyxia. In fact, the chances of all of them suffering an accidental death, like you claim, are extremely rare."

JJ placed a hand roughly over Reid's mouth. "Don't listen to him," she said over her shoulder. "He's always saying stuff like this just to-"

"-And _this_ would be a failed attempt at smothering," Reid interjected, still muffled by JJ's hand.

"Let _me_ try," a voice behind JJ urged. "I won't fail. I promise." 

* * *

"Stay there," JJ insisted, landing a punch to Reid's midsection as a good measure. Then, because their unsub was cuffed at the table, she joined him.

She knew this kid's history. He had started smaller. With animals. He had a history of being abused and abusing. He had no conscience, but he had plenty of hormones.

"You can't gain his trust," Hotch had passed along urgently. "You've got to stroke his ego."

"You know, I've always wondered," JJ began in a low, inviting tone, "If there was a way to do...the kind of stuff you do...and...well..." she broke off, feigning shyness.

"What? You can ask. I promise. Anything," the kid said, seduced by JJ's proximity as much as her charm.

"Well, it's not really a question for you," she said, dismissing him. "Since all the victims we're looking at are accidental deaths, you said, right?"

She scooted her chair back and cast a disdainful look at Reid, who was cowering behind them.

"No, it _is_!" he insisted. "They're not really accidents. I did it all," he said.

JJ leaned forward, hoping she looked exceedingly interested. "How?" 

* * *

"Spence, are you okay?" JJ asked once they were on the plane, on the way back to Virginia.

"Yeah, fine. Why? Were you worried about me?" he asked, sending her a smile.

"No," JJ shook her head, laughing. But then she grew serious. "I'm sorry for the stuff I said. It was just for the unsub, you know? I didn't mean it."

"No. I know that," Reid nodded, not quite meeting her eye.

"Spencer," JJ said, giving some weight to his name. When he looked up she held her gaze. "Remember this."

"Okay," he returned, sitting forward a little.

"Don't change," JJ said simply. "I like you this way. You're amazing."

Reid blinked. "Oh. Is-is that it? I mean, is there more?"

"Nope. That's it. You're amazing," she said, squeezing his shoulder before walking down the aisle.


End file.
